The present invention relates to protective garments for resisting ballistic forces and more particularly to ballistic resistant pads constructed with layered woven sheets utilized in body armor protective garments.
In the evolution of protective garments, there has been an ever pressing desire to develop stronger, lighter, thinner, cooler, more breathable and thereby more wearable garments. Such garments are intended to resist certain potentially lethal forces such as those from gun shots. Typically, these garments are designed to protect the wearer from ballistic forces by preventing penetration through the garment from a projectile bullet.
Attempts at developing thin, light, flexible and breathable and more wearable protective body armor have been made in order to create garments that are more wearable to the user. The more light, thin and less insulating the protective ballistic resistant garment is, the more likely the user (such as a law enforcement officer) will actually wear the garment, especially during the long hours of a working shift.
It is also desirable to have the protective body armor garment cover as much of the wearer""s torso as possible while also maintaining wearability. The thinner and lighter the protective article, the more coverage can be offered. Concealability of the anti-ballistic body armor may also be improved if it is constructed to be thin and non-bulky. These attempts at developing thin and lightweight ballistic resistant body armor articles have also been made to try to allow increased freedom of movement and mobility so that the user wearing the article is not hampered from doing his or her job.
These attempts at reducing weight while improving the thinness of the article have previously been made by the utilization of layers of woven sheets of aramid fibers. High tensile strength aramid fibers such as Kevlar(copyright) produced by E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company of Wilmington, Del., have often been employed in forming the woven ballistic fabric. Aramids such as Twaron(copyright) T-1000 and Twaron(copyright) T-2000/T-2040 of Accordis Fibers, Inc. have also been used in forming woven sheets of material in ballistic resistant pads. Recently, high performance rigid-rod lyotropic liquid crystal polymer fiber formed from poly (p-phenylene-2, 6-benzobisoxazole) (PBO) developed by Toyobo Co. Ltd. and sold under the name Zylon(copyright) has been used in body armor products. Thus, there has been an ongoing need to construct ballistic resistant pads which have improved wearability through the employment of thinner, lighter more flexible and higher strength materials.
Various voluntary governmental ballistic standards have been established to certify certain ballistic resistant garments. The tests determine the ability of the garment to resist penetration and also measure backface signature resulting from various ballistic rounds shot from various types of weapons. In particular, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Standard 0101.03 and 0101.04 certification tests are ballistics tests for certifying certain body armor products. Both the NIJ Standard 0101.03 and 0101.04 tests are grouped into different Threat Levels, with each Threat Level corresponding to ballistic projectile penetration stopping capabilities of various ballistic rounds fired from designated weapons. The different Threat Levels have defined criteria for defeating certain ballistic rounds and number of rounds fired as well as defined backface signature requirements. For generally concealable type ballistic resistant body armor NIJ Standard certification tests are often performed for NIJ Threat Levels IIA, II and IIIA. NIJ Threat Level IIIA is a higher standard level than NIJ Threat Level II and which in turn is a higher standard level than NIJ Threat Level IIA. There is therefore a need to provide thin and lightweight protective body armor garments having low insulating properties and good moisture vapor breathability to increase wearability, and which also meet ballistic certification tests.
It is an object of the invention to address one or more of the above referenced needs by providing a ballistic resistant pad which is thin and lightweight.